


gentle hands

by nerds_dilema



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Adoption, Coping, Fluff and Angst, HELP this is just pure hurt/comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mental Breakdown, Post-Canon, girl help they adopted a child, no beta we die like men, they are married and in love babey!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:54:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29222037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerds_dilema/pseuds/nerds_dilema
Summary: lio breaks down about all the people he couldn't save, and galo has always been there with him.
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 5
Kudos: 44





	gentle hands

Gentle. His hands are  _ gentle _ , ungloved hands pressing against his face, thumbs swiping underneath Lio's eyes.

"Firebug- What's wrong?" He murmurs, too tired, too upset at the tears streaming from Lio's face to draw up any of the energy he usually has. He's been working tirelessly, hands calloused and rough from moving rubble and gripping the handlebars of his motorcycle far too hard.

Lio's face is red and splotchy, the edges of his eyes puffy as tears keep dripping down, eyelashes wet. His small hands grab onto Galo's forearms, as if trying to get a lifeboat, something to grab onto to stop him from drowning. He’s always been used to climbing too high, burning too much, but now his spark has been put out and he can’t replace the sadness with anger anymore.

He's been keeping it inside so well, making sure nobody was bothered by the storm raging underneath his ribcage, at the way he stares at his lighter for a little too long.

Galo had given him one of those fancy lighters, a zippo one, because he 'thought you might've missed having flames on the go!' Lio had stared at it for the next 5 minutes, tracing his thumb over the engraving on the back.

It had said 'Lio de Galon,' the name of their mech before the ship had crashed down. Lio didn't understand why he put de, muttering to himself about it, until Guiera had pointedly told him that the de was possessive, romantically, and that Galo had given himself to Lio by naming it that.

But he kept it inside. Kept it, hid it, sobbed over the lighter with small shoulders shaking when he knew Galo wasn't home.

But it's all come crashing down, because he was running through documents, trying to find the name of just a kid, and he just- broke. Because she's so small, so tiny, so scared and she used to be a burnish. And he checked the records when he found her name.

Both of her parents were dead. 

So he broke, and Galo found him sobbing over the table at home because it was too much, there were too many dead, he couldn't save anyone. 

The storm keeps roaring even with Galo's warmth next to him, crouching down and staring at him with those wide eyes, desperate to help.

"H-her parents. They were, they were- dead. Gone. She's all... all alone, Galo, I can't even save a fucking kid." The words are pouring out of him faster than he can stop himself, wetting up Galo's palms with the tears slipping out. 

He hates feeling vulnerable. But he can't stop himself, no, not when Galo is with him, not when the little anthurium that they named Thyma is sitting on the desk. 

He grips Galo's forearms tighter, digging his nails in and curling in on himself to try and hide the tears and ugly wails that come from him, to hide the ugly murk that would've painted his flames black and grey.

Galo stops, waits, stares at Lio because he's never been good with understanding people, never been good at understanding boundaries or when people don't want to be touched. 

So he takes a chance and moves in, snaking his arms around Lio's back and setting a knee on the chair to balance himself, pressing Lio's head into his chest. It's the only way he knows how to comfort him, the only way he's ever learned how to.

Lio just pauses, stray tears falling onto Galo's shirt, and it's almost like a blanket draped over him, bringing him the smallest bit of peace in the midst of his pain. Galo stays there, chest moving as he breathes, and Lio melts into him.

Lio melts,  _ melts _ ,  **_melts_ ** like he never has in his life. He scrabbles to grab onto Galo's back, gripping at the shirt as he begins to wail again, pressing his forehead into Galo's chest so he can just shake and mourn the loss of his friends, his siblings, pretend that their charred hands won't come up from the grave to pull him down.

His breaths are sharp, wheezing in air between his sobs, and he doesn't need to explain himself for Galo to know that he needs this. He needs this because he's always been moving, it's always been just him no matter how close anyone thinks they've gotten to him, he's allowed his own earth to shake to keep the platform of life stable for everyone else.

Galo refrains from saying anything. It's tempting, it is, but he needs to wait, because Lio never had an Aina in his life, so he's more than happy to become Lio's anchor, his guide in the storm when the lights shut off and everything is too overwhelming. 

' _She's just a kid-_ ' His head repeats to him, unrelenting in the memories of watching his friends fall apart, of broken off bandages and ice-cold skin. Sometimes they drop a ring, a necklace, something that was so real and showed their attachment to someone else.

He keeps them all, so if he ever finds the person they loved, he can give them the one remaining thing. He holds a graveyard of names and memories in his desk drawer. Sometimes he feels like the metal brands into his palms when he holds them.

“Do you-” Galo breathes, his chest feeling stuck as he closes his eyes, putting a hand on the back of Lio’s head, fingers slightly scratching his scalp. “Do you want to take care of her?” It’s a question that’s asked so softly but holds so much weight, but he- he knows that Lio sees the sins he needs to atone for in that kid.

“I don’t know  _ how  _ to help  _ anyone _ , Galo, how do I-” He can feel the ground shaking underneath him, he can remember the terrified screams as they were frozen, he  _ remembers.  _ He remembers it so so well and he hates it.

“You’re- you’re not alone,” He stutters out, and it’s a commitment, it’s spoken so easily, but he’s already given himself to Lio. He swore himself when he pushed his own flames into Lio’s body, when he named the mech Lio de Galon. He’s good with kids, and he knows that he can help. He’ll help him. 

“I- I saw that kid, and- I just remembered all of the Burnish who died, and I remember myself as a kid, and I can’t- I can’t handle it-”

“We can take care of her. You’ve done- you didn’t kill them. You fought so hard, firebug,” Galo murmurs, squeezing him harder, to try and put Lio back together, to piece him back up. Lio has been drowning for so long that he’s grasping for Galo’s hand to grab onto it, to stop himself from drowning. He’s started fighting to live more than ever.

“...You would take her in? For me?” Galo softly laughs, listening to Lio’s sobs slowly stop, and he can feel the furnace in his heart light. 

“Not just for you. For her, too. I know you need to- to  _ atone _ . In a way.” Lio can feel tears pricking at his eyes again and he sniffles, he knows Galo is right, because he always is. Galo is happy and loud and so much but- he makes the right decisions. 

There’s a mutual understanding between the 2 of them that they’re going to make the life for this child as best as it can, because  _ they  _ never had the parents to raise them, they never had loving laughs or bedtime stories. Galo was raised by the man who killed his parents and lived to see him die, and Lio was alone with the ashes of the people that burned away.

“I need to- I want to- to take care of her. Her parents died because they burned, and mine did too,” He mumbles, thinking at the small blue eyes staring at him. He can see himself in her.

“Alright. We can figure out the details later, let’s just- I’ll order some pizza, alright? And we can put on that cheesy movie you like- ‘s called the Notebook, right?”

“It’s not cheesy!” He hopelessly tries to protest, hearing that teasing lilt in Galo’s voice, and he sniffles and smiles against his chest. 

He’s not drowning. He’s got a palm burned with names and a drawer that’s a graveyard, but He’s got Galo and the warm kitchen and couch waiting there for him when he needs to melt and break down. 

Galo has always picked up his pieces.

Always.

~

He’s got Galo’s big jacket pulled around his shoulders, the one showing his number and that he’s apart of burning rescue, because it makes him feel safe. It smells like Galo, keeps him protected, makes him seem less threatening.

Galo is standing right next to him, big hands dwarfing his own when he curls his fingers around the edges of the jacket, staring at the small makeshift tents they had set up for the Burnish while trying to find places for them to live.

The girl with sharp blue eyes and thick brown hair is sitting next to the other kids, just barely laughing and smiling with them, and he feels a pang in his heart. He’s taking a step forward, voice stuck in his throat, and he turns to Galo because he’s  _ terrified.  _

What if she doesn’t like him? What if he does something wrong? How does he take care of a kid?

But Galo smiles at him, that bright grin like the sun that warms him up when the newfound cold seeps into his skin. Galo takes his hand, and he takes a step. And another. And he keeps walking,  _ keeps walking _ , until he’s standing in front of the kid, her bright eyes blinking up at him.

He takes a deep breath, ignoring the storm raging inside of him, and he crouches down, the jacket shifting over his shoulders. He tries to remember what he wanted someone to tell him when he was younger, when he was scared of the world and he had nobody by his side.

“What’s… what’s your name?” He asks softly, and she twiddles her thumbs together, looking away from him, locking and unlocking her fingers. It seems like she’s thinking, but hell if he knows, he’s never been able to tell how people are feeling.

“My name is.. it’s… it’s Maki.” He’s surprised at how young she sounds. Take a deep breath in, curl and uncurl his fingers, slowly reach it out to her.

“Maki,” He says, crouched down in front of her with Galo’s big jacket thrown over his shoulders and hand outreached, “Do you want to stay with us?”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading !! this was just something small i felt like writing and it morphed into hurt/comfort IFDSJGRBH


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